[Sca-cooks] Winter comfort food...

[kingstaste at mindspring.com]

Well, it being cold and rainy here in Atlanta, we decided on soup last night
as well. Per Santa's request, it contained no beans or cabbage ;)
I ended up going with something loosely based on a Greek or Italian wedding
soup.  (I found a recipe on-line that is something similar -
http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1848,157168-233206,00.html , although I just
looked that up, I did not follow any recipe).

I started with 2 quarts of homemade turkey stock and added another quart of
water.  To this I added a little over one cup of medium grain organic brown
rice and 2 large cloves of minced organic garlic.  I diced up some Bell and
Evans chicken breast meat and added it to the pot.  I let this simmer a
while as I prepared the other ingredients.  I made a chiffonade of spinach
(organic spinach from my CSA), and finely diced an organic fennel bulb that
I found on the discount rack at Sevananda (my local food co-op).  I also
chopped some fennel fronds.  I juiced 4 organic lemons and set all of this
aside while my girlfriend and I sat and chatted and drank a nice Australian
Merlot :)
	When the rice and chicken was cooked through, I added the vegetables and
lemon juice.  The last step was to take one organic egg and beat it
thoroughly, then add it a la egg drop soup to the simmering mixture, making
sure it did not clump up.  A bit of salt and pepper and we were ready to
serve.  Yum!  I knew I wanted the lemon juice for the phlem-cutting
properties it had, and the egg thickened the soup up just enough to give it
body (the turkey stock was pretty rich as well and added lots of body on its
own).  It was a hit, and no chance of giving Santa the toots during his many
appearances today.
	There is a bit left over, I'm hoping for the usual "better on the second
day" thing.  I thought of the whole 'comfort food' thread while it was
cooking, so knew I had to share today!
	Christianna
	who has a pot of mixed grains, apple juice, and dried fruits simmering on
the stove right now...